Storytelling Online : Talking Breast Cancer

This is an original sociological study of breast cancer patients' participation in Internet spaces. While much has been debated about the significance of the Internet, the actual processes of communication in which people engage online are little understo

Shani Orgad is Lecturer in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

List of Figures

ix

Acronyms

xi

Acknowledgments

xiii

1. Introduction: The Story of This Book

1

(26)

Storytelling Online as a Socially Meaningful Activity

3

(3)

Empirical and Methodological Context: The Landscape of Breast Cancer Patients' Online Communication

6

(1)

Researching the Online Communication of Breast Cancer

7

(7)

Theoretical Context

14

(9)

The Story You Are About to Read

23

(4)

2. Storytelling and Other Models of Online Communication

27

(26)

Existing Frameworks for Explaining Patients' Online Communication

28

(8)

Storytelling: An Introduction

36

(7)

Analytical Framework: Storytelling in the Online Experience of Breast Cancer Patients

43

(3)

Storytelling Online: Turning a "Full Stop" Into a "Comma"

46

(1)

Storytelling Online at the Interface Between the Online and the Offline

47

(6)

3. Storytelling and Therapy in the Context of Breast Cancer and Chronic Illness

53

(16)

The Place of Breast Cancer in Contemporary Culture: Historical Perspective

54

(6)

Contextualizing the Dominant Meanings of Breast Cancer

60

(4)

Therapy and Storytelling

64

(5)

4. Emplotment and the Construction of Closure

69

(30)

The Quest for Making Sense

70

(16)

Directing Towards Closure: A Story of Survival

86

(12)

Conclusions: From Annals to Narratives

98

(1)

5. Exchange and Reciprocity

99

(30)

Exchange and the Online Communication of Breast Cancer Patients

100

(5)

Exchange and Storytelling Online

105

(21)

Conclusions

126

(3)

6. Negotiating Public and Private

129

(32)

Redefining Space and Time

131

(8)

Establishing the Common and the Unique

139

(7)

Interacting Personally, Performing Publicly

146

(4)

Talking in Experts' and Laypersons' Voices

150

(2)

Moving Between the Oral and the Written

152

(2)

Conclusions: The Dialectical Process of Negotiating Public and Private Online

154

(7)

7. Conclusions

161

(24)

Thinking About Participants' Online Activity as Storytelling: Usefulness and Limitations

162

(9)

The Scope of the Book

171

(11)

Closure

182

(3)

Appendix 1: Sociodemographic Table of Participants

185

(2)

Notes

187

(4)

Bibliography

191

(10)

Index

201

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Storytelling Online : Talking Breast Cancer on the Internet

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials